Westervelt letter: Collared wolves

Yeah. Right. You bet it was a “mistake” that four wolves were collared in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area. Helicopters should never have been allowed to land in the wilderness area for the purpose of collaring any wildlife — elk or wolves or anything else. The U.S. Forest Service should never have given permission for helicopters to go in. There simply must be a place where wildlife is not harassed, collared, counted or otherwise “managed.” That place is wilderness.

Idaho Fish and Game is firmly in the pockets of hunters and trappers because it is from the sale of hunting, trapping and fishing tags that the department gets its funding. That makes it is impossible for Idaho Department of Fish and Game to have any autonomy.

A government wildlife killer was foiled last year from going into the Frank to kill wolves (not before some wolves were killed, of course), but that does not mean he won’t be back with the blessing of Fish and Game and the Forest Service. This time it’ll be a lot easier for him to find and kill entire packs because they’ll be trackable by telemetry codes. The collars must be removed.